Every beginning of a new year, most tech geeks are looking forward to either Mobile World Congress (MWC) or Consumer Electronic Show (CES). Now, MWC2016 is just around the corner. Many tech geek like me will be looking forward to the launch of new smartphones or gadgets. Most of the time, I always look forward to new smartphones. I don’t know why but that’s just what I’m really into.

And hence this blog post I’m writing. Now what smartphone should we look forward to launch at MWC2016 in Barcelona Spain this year? I do have a few in mind.

First off, the consumer favourite brand – Samsung.

Samsung is expected to launch their new flagship phone which is obviously the Galaxy S7. Since my title says “What smartphone should WE look forward to”, I have to put aside my dislike for Samsung phones for now. This article is for everyone to read anyway.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

Samsung Galaxy S7 is coming up with two variants, one with 5.1″ flat display and the other is 5.5″ with edge display a.k.a Galaxy S7 Edge. The screen will feature a new ‘always on display’ (AOD) functionality that enables a glancable screen for reduced power consumption.

An important addition to the previous series is the expandable memory card slot up to 200GB. It is possible that Samsung may test its new Snapdragon 820 processor in SG7. Since Samsung is already working with Qualcomm in manufacturing 820 with 3GHz Kyro CPU cores. The fingerprint sensor and heart rate monitor may roll over from S6 to S7. The device should also feature Android Marshmallow and Touch Wiz. Going by other reports, it is expected that Samsung GS7 may have a 4GB RAM, with two internal storage capacities of 32GB and 64GB, and expansion. The batteries will be non-removable 3000mAh on GS7 and even bigger 3,600mAh on GS7 Edge. On the camera front, the phone will have 12MP rear snapper and 5MP front snapper. – Source: smartcritique.com

Next we move on to LG.

LG has been one of my favourite brand for a smartphone. Yes, I do prefer LG than its South Korean counterpart, Samsung. I feel that LG made a more simpler straightforward Android phone without too much bloatwares.

I am anticipating the LG G5 to be launch at MWC2016. The G5 is a leap forward than it’s predecessor, the LG G4 but remaining the useful removable battery with a twist. It is said to come with a Magic Slot at the bottom of the phone to remove the battery without having to remove the back cover. It’s something new so I am looking forward to that.

LG G5 Dual Rear Camera

In some of the leak images of the LG G5, we can see that it comes with dual real camera. I don’t know what is the function yet but something tells me that it’s going to be something interesting.

Qualcomm has also shared that LG G5 will have Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 under the hood. LG has also announced LG Stylus2 before the upcoming MWC event. One of the launch phones, the one with the X Cam feature will have dual cameras on the rear, one 13MP and the other 5MP which is expected to deliver advanced shooting experience. The 5.2 inch handset also has an 8MP front facing camera. It will have a 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM, with full HD display and weighing only 118g. Meanwhile the the other one that features the X Screen will feature dual screens, something that Yota phones had experimented with. One of those screens, which we can refer to as secondary screen will always stay on. It will be a 1.76 inch screen that sits above the phone’s primary 4.9 inch screen. The secondary screen will always show the time, battery status and notifications on the phone. – Source: smartcritique.com

Blackberry is still in the show.

My other favourite brand for smartphones. Since the release of Blackberry Priv, I have taken a bigger interest in Android based Blackberry phones. The Priv was a smart move by Blackberry to keep the company alive. The Priv received good response from the consumer with a few hundred thousand units were sold within a week. That is great news. And now, Blackberry is rumoured to release the new Blackberry Venice at MWC2016.

BlackBerry Venice

The Blackberry Venice will have a physical keyboard at the bottom of the phone. The Priv has a sliding panel to reveal the keyboard, but the Venice doesn’t. The Venice will come with a smaller screen size than the Priv and it will be competitively priced for medium range users.

Last on my list are the two Chinese giants, Xiaomi and Huawei.

The Mi5 is said to be the best Xiaomi has ever made. It will come with the new Snapdragon 820 processor and will sport 1920×1080 pixel screen resolution and will be a dual SIM device with NFC and 4G LTE connectivity. I had the old Mi3 which I loved. And then the Mi4 impressed me with its overall performance and now the Mi5 should be a good upgrade.

Xiaomi Mi 5

But I’m happy with my Huawei.

Speaking of which, Huawei will also be in the limelight at the upcoming MWC2016. Huawei has been continuously producing newer and better smartphones to be in their arsenal against the bigger players like Apple and Samsung. The Huawei Mate 8 was launch earlier this year and that phone has gained some respect because of it’s performance rating in Antutu Benchmark which sits just below iPhone 6S Plus. At MWC2016 Huawei is rumoured to launch their new Huawei P9, which will be their next flagship smartphone. No specifications about the phone just yet but I think it will come with Huawei’s own Kirin processor.

Huawei P9

Few other brands that I did not mention are the phones from Lenovo/Motorola, HTC, Sony and Microsoft. It’s not that I don’t like those brands but they haven’t been showing much improvements yet. For example, Lenovo has re-branded Motorola to just Moto and what are rumoured to be launched by them are just simple smartphones targeted for the lower end of the consumer market.

Sony still have a lot to improve in terms of overall hardware performance. Even with their top-of-the-line specifications, they still can’t get it to run at optimum performance. HTC might surprise us with something new hiding up their sleeves. We shall wait and see.

As for Microsoft, well…nothing to say about them here. Move on.

That is all I have for this article on what smartphone should we look forward to launch at MWC2016. Now we shall wait for the actual day of the event to find out what is in store for us this month.